Mobile communication devices allow users to make telephone calls, receive email, browse the World Wide Web, listen to audio content, and view video content. Such devices have gotten more powerful over the years, to the point where they can now execute various custom, downloaded applications for a variety of needs. Many of the applications are very sophisticated and may access server-based data automatically while they are running so as to provide a rich user experience.
The number and type of sensors on smartphones has so proliferated in recent years. Many such devices now have electronic compasses, accelerometers, GPS units, cameras, proximity sensors, and other such sensors. These sensors can be used in a variety of manners, such as to determine a user's location with a GPS unit, and the user's orientation with a compass unit, and then to provide a compass-based GOOGLE STREETVIEW around the user. Other applications can provide basic turn-by-turn navigation in response to a user's provision of an address to a device. Also, dedicated navigation units permit a user to type in a destination address and to have turn-by-turn directions provided between the user's current location and the destination address.